Now I’ve been a massive fan of QOTSA since 2003 I think, when I first saw No One Knows on MTV (before the YouTube explosion) I was hooked instantly, more so from the tight drumming by Dave Grohl, and the more or less clean tone on Oliveri’s basslines; it made for an IMMENSE rhythm section, I felt. As soon as I saw this video, I knew I just had to have the album…and honestly, once the opening of Millionaire finally kicked I just got it and was in ^^ and headbopping like a loon. I must have bought Rated R not long after, and was even more impressed.
But back to the point at hand, in my honest opinion I think the live performances of Regular John sound far superior to the recorded version (which can be found on their debut album, or YouTube). His vocal performance doesn’t sound as powerful, for instance. And some of the improvisations that are added to these said performances flow into the song so well when heard in a live capacity.
With this in mind, I think we can all agree that when we go to a gig or festival, we want to see a ‘performance’ and not five shoe-gazers hunched over their guitars. From the bootlegs that I’ve got on my hard-drive, QOTSA have always been about just that; putting on a performance. Amazing us with great music and energy.
As per my recent post their debut album has rarely been off shuffle on my mp3 player or stereo, but when I recently downloaded their album (ahem, somewhat craftily of course) I found myself preferring this exact performance – such an amazing bootleg anyway over their recorded version.
Don’t you agree?
LHathNoFury 
As someone who does gigs often, I’m very aware that audiences don’t just ‘come for the music’. People want to be entertained or have their mind blown. Thats what we try and do as much as possible!
I do think that a band is not a good band unless they can pull it off live 🙂